ALPINE SKI BOOTS
Alpine skiing belongs to the most popular winter Olympics sports. It encompasses the following sports: special slalom, giant slalom, super giant slalom, downhill and combined. The alpine skiing or downhill skiing, consist of sliding down to the valley on snow-covered slopes with a pair of skis on the feet, attached the bindings to special boots.
The ski boot is a very important tool for the skier: it is the connection among man, ski and the ground. Over the years the ski boots have evolved to guarantee to the snow lovers comfort, great performance for this activity and safety both in and out the ski track.
For over a century the slope skis have been secured to regular mountain leather boots, with a kind of laces also used for walking without skis. In particular, until the 50’s, the alpine ski boots were up to “just above the ankle”, that is much lower than alpine ski boots of today. They were mainly made of high-thickness leather upper, a leather lining, a high-thickness leather innersole and a real rubber sole. Sole and innersole were attached to the upper through double stitching and metal screws. The manufacturing followed the Goodyear or Ideal method. The lacing system had rings and/or metal hooks through which the laces run and by pulling them, they wrapped the ankle and the foot of the skier. The boots were attached to the ski mainly by leather straps. Later other metal parts have been introduced, which allowed to better secure and attach the boot to the ski.
As a consequence of the evolution of the bindings, the ski boots needed to be adapted, until manufacturing of models designed exclusively to practice this sport. The first quick-release buckles were issued in the market in 1955 and only two years later Bob Lange created the first boots completely made of rigid plastic. The industrial scale production of this kind of boots started in the mid 60’s.
Modern ski boots are commonly realized with a very hard plastic outer shell, which is equipped on the heel and in the toe box with a lug allowing the binding to the skies; the inner upper is covered with materials, such as plastic foam, rubber foam, velvet, ecc, to perfectly fit on the foot, keeping it comfortable and warm. They are equipped with two buckle fastenings to fit to the skier’s foot, heel and shin; they are realized with pulling systems or more commonly with three or four buckle hooks.
Regardless of the shoe fitting and its features, the item offered by the modern alpine ski boot producers is highly engineered. Innovative materials; plastic parts which can be customized in a traditional way or with the support of technologies such as Infrared; waterproof, heating and customizable inner boot liners.
NORDIC SKI BOOTS
Among winter sports Nordic skiing is opposite to alpine skiing, for which is not possible to fasten the heel of the boot to the ski itself; therefore it encompasses a variety of sports such as cross-country skiing, biathlon, ski jumping, Nordic combined, ski touring, ski orienteering, ski archery and Telemark skiing.
The mother of all these sports, the most common and popular one is cross-country skiing. Cross-country skiing was born as the expression and the evolution of one of the first forms of transportation on snow, as people needed a faster way to move than by foot, avoiding to sink into the snow.
The first cross-country skiers used to wear barks and woven tree branches made to make them slide on the snow without sinking, allowing them to hunt animals or to reach rivers and lakes for fishing.
Nowadays, cross-country skiing is defined as a “technique which allows moving forward on snow by using coordinately poles and skis, attached to special boots, which are secured only on the toe box, allowing the heel to lift freely. (source: Wikipedia)
Cross-country shoes were until the 50’s and the 60’s leather shoes, tied with laces and equipped with a rigid sole, allowing the ankle to move freely.
SNOWBOARD BOOTS
Snowboard is a winter sport practiced on snow, born in the 60’s in the U.S.; people practicing this sport are called snowboarders.
Snowboard mainly consists in sliding and performing tricks over snowy slopes keeping the balance on a board, to which the snowboarder can secure his boots. This board is called snowboard and the sport was named after it.
Snowboard boots are very different from both alpine ski boots and Nordic ski boots.
Even if they are very different from one another according the type of snowboard (freestyle) and the preferences of the sportsman, they have a common feature that is less rigidity compare to the alpine ski boots, a large sole, the possibility to easily walk on the snow.
Snowboard boots differ among each other for:
– materials of the chassis
– level of flexibility
– height
– fastening systems: classic fastening or traditional with laces, BOA® fastening, quick fastening. Fastening systems aim to guarantee a perfect fitting to the foot, as well as the adherence between the foot and the boot, thanks to the proper regulations.
CURLING SHOES
“Curling shoes are similar to regular sport footwear, but for the fact that the two soles are different from one another. The slider is the sole designed for the sliding foot, whereas the other shoe has a sole designed to grip on ice. The slider is usually made of Teflon, but there are some made of stain steel and “brick red” color PVC.
Most curling shoes are equipped with a slider sole, but there are also sliding-soles, which can be attached under the shoe, exposed to ice and secured to the shoes through laces or elastic bands.
Some shoes have sliders made of two small circles which cover the front part of the sole and the heel [20] When an athlete is not shooting the slider can be turned into non-slippery by using a “shoe strap”, i.e. a sole which can be attached under the shoe.
The gripper is designed to avoid slipping. It can support a regular sport shoe sole or a special rubber layer applied under the shoes, this has the same thickness of the slider.
The tip of the shoe can also have a rubber covering on the upper surface or a flap over the tip. This reduces the wear-and-tear and the friction on the upper part of the shoe during the shot. ( fonte : Wikipedia)
ICE SKATING BOOTS AND ICH HOCKEY BOOTS
Ice skates are made of an inner boot, realized with a different material depending on the needs: Kevlar and/or leather (often synthetic) for figure ice skates, always Kevlar or sometimes even carbon for hockey.
The chassis is a plastic “half-moons” part which binds the inner boot to the blade (in hockey ice skates). Unlike hockey, in figure ice skates the chassis is embedded with the blade.
Looking at the skate frontally (from the back side to the front side) you may notice that the blade is some millimeters thick and the part touching the ice is troughed, with edges as sharp as knives (the so called edges) to have the necessary grip and give the direction on ice.
Figure ice skates have also in the front part, close to the sliding plane, a toothed edge allowing a great friction and ensuring a safe starting point for jumps.